It’s been a while since I last posted, so I wanted to start again by showing what our “home bar” currently looks like.

We don’t have an actual home bar with a counter, barstools, or a back bar. Instead, our setup is distributed across several rooms in the house.

Drink preparation happens around the kitchen island. That’s where I mix, shake, and often make a mess. I stand between the island and the refrigerator/freezer so I can pivot to grab ice for mixing and shaking. On top of the fridge I keep a rubber bar mat, which comes down whenever it’s time to work, and helps a little bit with the messiness. Nearby are the cutting board, knife, and citrus press that see regular duty.

We enjoy our drinks either in the family room or in what we call “the lounge”, which is the space usually intended to be the living room. Along one wall of the lounge are three glass-door Ikea cabinets (Regissör, if you must know), standing side by side. Inside are our spirits, barware, a ceramic utensil holder full of tools I carry to the kitchen when it’s time to mix, glassware, books, mixers, and other supplies.

Our wine lives on a rack in the dining room, next to another large glass cabinet filled with glassware. Ice and anything that needs refrigeration — vermouth, syrups, citrus, juices, and beer — stay in a garage refrigerator/freezer. In that same freezer you’ll find trays for making BFCs (aka big f**king cubes) and 2.5-gallon Ziploc bags to store them.

We recently bought a light box for photographing our drinks, because of the suboptimal results from posing them on the granite kitchen countertop and then having to rearrange the kitchen clutter. Getting around to making that purchase delayed posting for a few weeks.

It’s not a showpiece, but it works for us, evolving and expanding as our tastes and technique have improved.

Here’s my setup for making Vespers, one of our favorite cocktails. Sharp eyed readers may spot the empty coupe glasses next to the orange. Yes, an orange.

The spec we use comes from an Atlanta bar of the same name. The first time we made Vespers at home using a recipe from one of our cocktail books, the result was undrinkable. Their spec was the standard 3 ozs. gin (we used Bombay Sapphire ), 1 oz. vodka, and 0.5 oz Lillet Blanc, and a lemon twist. A few months after that we visited Vesper and told the bartender about it. He proceeded to make two versions: one gin forward, and the other vodka forward. Both were delicious, but we preferred the vodka forward version.

Here’s the spec we use instead:

• 2 oz. Vodka (we use Ketel One)
• 1 oz. London dry gin (we use Plymouth)
• 1 oz. Cocchi Americano

Ingredients shaken with ice, strained into a chilled coupe glass, expressed orange twist garnish.

If you try it, let me know what you think.

Cheers!